One of the latest trend is the inclusion inside operating systems of some kind of visually enhanced desktops: Vista has Aero, the OS X has Exposé and all the nice animations of the desktop, and some projects (like Beryl or Compiz) are adding the same (and even more "extreme") features to Linux distributions.

Luigi is using Ubuntu as his main laptop and he filmed the graphic effects he can handle with his 256Mb RAM, 6 years old laptop (he is running Compiz). 

Another very nice example of a Linux 3D Desktop is Beryl, a fork of Compiz (thanks to Alessio for sharing)

But that trigger a question in my head: why does Vista need special graphic cards and a lot of RAM just to have some translucent windows, while Compiz can play movies with the player on the edge of a 3D cube with just normal laptops graphic cards and 256Mb of RAM?

PS: if you are using a feed reader, you are missing 2 video: look at the post on my site to see them